27 September, 2012

The final flourish

After getting the podium I really
wanted in the National Time Trial I’ve since had my head down and my legs
spinning solely for the track, which was yesterday. I’m no trackie so I only
entered the individual pursuit, the event which is arguably the easiest for a
road rider to adapt to. It’s essentially a very unimaginative 4km time trial
suitable for people who aren’t ambi-turners.

I like having specific targets at
the end of the year because it means I can zero in on one thing in my mind and
not feel any pressure, until the day anyway! The training for the I.P. was
fairly gruelling though as it mostly involved 4 minute ‘max’ efforts, 1 minute ‘more
than max’ efforts and 20 second ‘which way is the hospital?’ efforts. I’ll
never forget the day I showed Coach Jon some power data for a 4 minute effort
and he said; “This bit at the end… You shouldn’t be able to do that!”

The night before the event I was
very kindly put up (with) by Jackie Marrs, my teammate’s mum and her boyfriend. It
was very nice and I headed off for the track in the morning when they went to
work. The only problem with this was I ended up arriving about seven hours
early. There’s nothing quite as rock and roll as having a little nap in the car
because you’ve got nothing much else to do and you’re feeling a bit squiffy
after a long drive the day before. At one point I opened an eye to see Sir
Chris Hoy hopping out of his convertible Jag looking very suave. Living the
dream.

Snap courtesy of Rick Robson and Larry at VeloUK.

Onto the event, when I was
honoured to have the very capable hands of Phil Wicinski giving me splits. He
also acted as chief psychologist and motivational speaker: and he bought a riotous crew of supporters. It was so much fun
having literally half of the velodrome behind me! I did a 4:35.375 in
qualifying which put me in first place until the next pair of Doull and Dibben
both went faster. Doh!

Still, I was in the bronze medal
ride off for a second year running which isn’t too bad for a filthy roadie.
After pulling my wheel over out the gate I made no mistake at the restart, getting
the top three I so wanted. Thanks again to ‘Team Doug’: that is, Barry, Rael,
Hayley, Carl, Anna and Phil, and to Jody Warrington who filmed it all and is going to
make me famous. Check it out!

So that’s the season done and dusted
for me. I’ll catch you all out on the town and remember: don’t believe any
stories you may hear about me! Peace & Love.